OTTAWA -- Should Porky Pig get a swine-flu shot?
A newly released document shows that's a question Canada's food-safety watchdog pon-dered this spring after an Alberta hog farmer's herd caught the H1N1 virus.
An internal report from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency suggests officials consid-ered sticking pigs with a special swine-flu needle to stop the virus from spreading through herds.
Pigs can catch flu viruses from infected pigs and people, mostly from coughing and sneez-ing -- but there's no proof people can get the H1N1 virus from pigs or eating pork.
Little was known about the novel strain of the H1N1 virus as the food-inspection agency mulled swine-flu shots for pigs.
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The outbreak at the farm near Rocky Mountain House, Alta., was the first-ever report of the new virus in pigs, and the source of the infection remains a mystery.
